Three Week Plan

In the course of three weeks, you should have enough time to become familiar with the content and format of the GRE revised General Test. Three weeks is also ample time to attempt many practice questions, and to review hundreds, as well as learn quite a few new, vocabulary words. Although three weeks is a long time, it is not long enough to learn hundreds of new vocabulary words, especially if you are not as good at vocabulary as you would like to be.

During the course of the three weeks, you will practice using many practice questions that are available on MyGRETutor.com. Each of the weekly timetables that are provided as part of the three-week plan span 6 days. Numerous studies have shown that it is not advisable to cram for standardized tests, and that any memorization that you do will all be wasted; most well-developed standardized tests are very good at testing your knowledge rather than your memorization skills. Do not be tempted to rush through all of the tutorials and questions.

Expect to spend 2 hours each day, 6 days each week, for three whole weeks, for a total of approximately 36-40 hours of study time. Unlike the two week and one week study plans, the 36 hours that you spend during the three week plan should not only help you to become familiar with the GRE, but you should be able to significantly improve to the score that you would get if you were not to study.

Week One

During the first of the three weeks for this study plan, make it a goal to become familiar with all of the sections of the GRE revised general Test. Take your time. Be sure to read the tutorials fully, and get into the habit of not only doing the practice questions, but also reviewing them. During the first week, go over all of the tutorials, and utilize the practice questions that are offered at MyGRETutor.

In the first week, spend at least 6 days in preparing for the GRE revised test, spending 2 hours each day, for a total of 12 hours. Here is a sample plan for the first week of the three week plan:

Day 1: Become familiar with the format of the GRE revised general test, including timing tactics, adaptive testing, scoring and section order. Be sure that you understand the format of the exam. On
the first day, also look into where the closest exam center is located or where it is that you'd like to take the exam. If you haven't already registered for the exam, then do this as soon as possible. Examination centers have only
a limited number of time slots each day, and once those time slots are filled, then no more exams can be taken on that day at that center. Don't leave registration until the last moment. As the exam date approaches, you don't want
to be worrying about registration.

Day 2: Go over the Algebra and Arithmetic parts of the tutorials sections. There is quite a bit of information to review there, especially if you haven't practiced or done much math in a long time.
Once you have completed these tutorial sections, do a handful of practice questions for each of the question types that appear on the GRE exam.

Day 3: Review the tutorials on reading comprehension. There are three kinds: single answer, multiple answer, and select in passage. Answer several reading comprehension question. Really study the questions, and don't just guess. Imagine that you are taking the test, and every answer can mean the difference between a good or bad score.

Day 4: Go over the tutorials on the essay section of the GRE exam. Note that there is quite a bit of information there regarding organization. Glance over the pool of essay topics that are available on the GRE website.

Day 5: Complete more practice questions.

Day 6: Go over some of the verbal and math questions that you've seen so far, and see why you may have made errors or why you may have gotten confused. Read those sections in the tutorials page that are most relevant.

Week Study Plan for Math Component of GRE

During the first week of this study plan, to prepare for the math section of the GRE exam, concentrate on the arithmetic and algebra tutorials and questions. Look ONLY on these sections so that you don't swamp yourself with too much information in too short a time. Notice how the question material for the arithmetic and algebra sections is relatively straight-forward, but that does not mean that the questions are easy.

Week Study Plan for Verbal Component of GRE

To prepare for the verbal section of the GRE test, during the first week of this study guide you will concentrate on the reading comprehension questions. You should become familiar with the three types of reading comprehension questions that appear on the exam. Also, strive to read quickly, critically and actively. Merely memorizing facts as you read will not do you much good, because the questions on the exam require you to interpret facts, infer from the passage's tone and style, and to understand how the provided piece of text might help contribute to a larger piece of work.

Week Study Plan for Essay Component of GRE

In the first week, after you have read the essay tutorials, also spend some time reviewing some of the tips on how to write well. Because you only have 30 minutes for each of the issue and argument writing tasks, you need to be insightful, concise, and clear. Also look over the provided pool of essay topics that are listed on the GRE website. On the day that you are slated to study the essay section, select some of the essay topics -- both issue and argument -- and brainstorm on some ideas and potential outlines for an essay. This is what you'll have to do during the real exam.

Week Two

In the second week of this 3-week study plan, you will complete the tutorials, answer more practice questions, and, at the end, take a second GRE practice exam.

During the second week, spend at least 6 days preparing for the GRE. Spend 2 hours each day, for a total of 12 hours. Here is a sample plan for the second week of the three week plan:

Day 1: Read the Geometry, Data Analysis, and Quantitative Comparison Sections of the tutorials section. This will complete your math review. Complete 8-10 of each type of math practice question. Finish by studying a handful of new vocabulary words.

Day 2: Read the tutorials on Sentence Equivalence, and Text Completion questions. The text completion questions tend to be some of the more straight-forward questions on the Verbal sections of the GRE exam, but do not let that fool you. There are three different types of text completion questions, but only one type of sentence equivalence question. Attempt approximately 10 of each type of text completion, and approximately 10 of the sentence equivalence questions. Finish by studying some vocabulary words.

Day 3: Again prepare for the essay section. In the first week you sampled some of the issue and argument essay topics, and this week do it again. This time, however, don't only brainstorm, but actually take your brainstorming notes and compose practice paragraphs.

Day 4: Go over the writing well sections of MyGRETutor, and attempt more practice questions for the types of questions that you have already reviewed.

Day 5: By this time you have completed all of the tutorials, and in preparation for the practice test on day 6, spend all of day 5 doing practice questions. Don't do one type of question, but instead cycle through the sections: do a few math, a few verbal, and mix-and-match the types. Do this for a full 1.5 hours. The questions that you will see on the real GRE will also be drawn from all of these sections, so you want to sample the questions accordingly.

Day 6: Complete more practice questions. It might be tiring for you to sit for several hours, answering question after question, but that is how it will be on test day, so you should prepare for it while you have time.

Week Study Plan for Math Component of GRE

In the second week of this study plan, you will continue to review the math topics that appear on the GRE revised test. If it has been a while since you have attempted math questions, you will want to be especially vigilant when you view the math tutorials. Of the three math topics that you are reviewing this week, geometry, data analysis, and quantitative comparison sections, quantitative analysis might be the most "odd," because it is unlike most other math questions that you have probably answered before.

Week Study Plan for Verbal Component of GRE

Here are the two verbal question types that you will review/learn this week:

Text Completion: You will be presented with one or several sentences, with a single, two, or three blanks. If the sentence that you are shown has a single blank, then you will have five answer choices, but if the sentence has two or three blanks, you will see three answer choices for each blank. Your task is to select that choice(s) for each blank so that the sentence is coherent and correct.

Sentence Equivalence: You will be presented with a short snippet of text with a single blank, along with six answer choices. Your task is to select TWO of the answer choices, so that when either of them is inserted into the blank, the sentence is grammatically, stylistically, and logically correct. Moreover, the two answer choices that you select should generate sentences that are similar in meaning.

Become familiar with all of these verbal question types. As with the math section, attempt a fair share of verbal practice questions. These questions should help to solidify the concepts that you learned in the tutorials.

Week Study Plan for Essay Component of GRE

On day 3 of this week, study the essay tasks of the GRE test. Take several more sample issue and argument topics, and brainstorm on these -- and THEN also write several sample paragraphs. You'll do this on the real test, so this is ideal practice. Also focus on the style and organization that is required of good essays. The content of the essay is important, but the structure and your command of the English language are similarly as important.

Week Three

In the third and final week leading up to the GRE revised test, you will continue to practice using the GRE practice questions available on MyGRETutor. Spend at least 5 days preparing for the GRE exam; spend 2 hours each day, for a total of 12 hours. Here is a sample plan for the third week of the three week plan:

Day 1: Go over the questions that you've looked at so far.

Days 2-4: Attempt as many practice questions as you can. Practice, practice, practice. Again, as was the case in week two, sample from all of the practice questions categories. If you spend 1.5
hours each day doing practice questions, you should be able to get through at least half of the questions in each section.

Day 5: It is now very close to the exam day, and so be sure that you do not try to learn new vocabulary words. If you try to do this, you'll be just memorizing. At this time, also finalize that you have your registration for your test AND that you know how to get there. Ideally, you should try and drive or otherwise visit the exam center just to make sure you know how long it takes to get there. It would be unfortunate if you were to find out on test day that the test center is 2 hours away as opposed to what you thought was 1 hour, in which case you'd add unnecessary stress on the test day. Also, briefly review any of the tutorials sections that you have had most trouble with, and review those questions that you've seen in those sections.

Week Study Plan for Math Component of GRE

During the third week, you will just be doing as many practice questions as possible. By this time, you may have seen several difficult questions. Notice how the difficult questions often require you to have a firm understanding of relatively easy concepts. Also, note that some of the harder math questions will require you to perform a series of steps, each of which in themselves is easy. It is knowing which steps to carry out and which information you should use that makes such questions difficult.

Week Study Plan for Verbal Component of GRE

By now you will have noticed that your success on the verbal part of the GRE is based primarily on two things: your depth and breadth of your vocabulary and your ability to read critically and actively. By now you should have reviewed hundreds of words, and hopefully you have learned many new ones.

Week Study Plan for Essay Component of GRE

As was the case in week two of this study plan, practice on brainstorming and on writing sample paragraphs. There is only one way for you to prepare for the writing task of the GRE exam, and that is to practice, Practice, and PRACTICE. Writing is something that takes a very long time to perfect, and so get as much practice as possible. Luckily, the types of essays that are deserving of high scores are not necessarily complicated; instead good academic essays are brief, to the point, and
precise.